!. Will the proposed research agenda support heritage leadership for sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture? Why/why not?

At the end of today, Theresa talked about leadership being something that was attained through resilience, relevance, controversy, and collaboration. As I thought about it more tonight, I wondered whether Leadership is the biggest of the umbrellas, with Heritage coming down through an exploration by people who are courageous, vulnerable, thoughtful, etc. Not sure, just a thought at this point.

I do think this week’s explorations are otherwise in the right direction, although there is more to add onto the map of ideas.

One concept that arose this week that I’d like to continue pondering is the idea that we can “use our privilege to help others.” This is an important tone or attitude to evaluate at this early stage. When I applied the same concept to gender – that is, “men can use their privilege to help women” – it brought up a lot of emotion and baggage to unpack. There is obviously a positive, productive, and collaborative attitude here, but I’m not sure that exact signpost will get us where we want to go.

How relevant is the proposed research agenda (a) to your work, (b) to your strategies for engaging others, and (c) to your approach to societal challenges?

This agenda is highly relevant to my work, especially the components that focus on personal investigations, leadership, collaborations, and resiliency. There are issues around shared resources that require immediate decision-making at both the local and state level, and it is imperative that the museum serve the community through its vision as a “Gathering Place”. We want to include every need, every aspiration, and every skill from the region into our dialogues about future-making. This will require reconciliation, grief, and healing. I have a lot more to reflect on here, and I have shared quite a bit of my passion to focus on Alaska-specific concerns regarding human relations and their impacts on our fragile environment. Eventually, I anticipate research and activities in Alaska to serve as useful models in other locations.

With respect to the proposed research agenda, which topics or questions energize you? Which topics or questions would be most likely to elicit a high level of commitment from you? Why?

I am attracted to a number of the topics, actually. The concept of social justice and civic engagement (participation) as components of <u>sustainable resilience</u> excites me because I see resilience as a critical to Alaska’s immediate future. And I am particularly attracted to research that would focus on individuals and their role in this resilient fabric because I do truly believe that intra/inner change is key to making sustainable shifts in a community. Through my work with climate change communication, I do believe that there will be a segment of the population who will “brought along” when social norms change, and they may not have to do the internal work themselves. However, I am much more interested in seeing change across boundaries on a personal level. If my town is 50% liberal/50% conservative, for example, how can we get both groups to blur the line and create a zone of commonality?

Along these personal lines, I am also very attracted to the idea of identity and place. I have a sense that my internal explorations as a second-generation Alaskan are not something that has been described before in a meaningful way. There may be a leadership role here in describing the place-based identity of second and third generation Alaskans so that we can rethink our approach to finding common ground with native communities, for example. The concept is highly personal, novel, and likely to create profound opportunity – so I belief I could sustain this interest. I have some concerns about a misstep in this dialogue causing more problems than it solves, but perhaps this component of controversy makes it a fruitful area to explore further.

I was also very excited when JC expressed an inquiry into how schools could work with community partners to preserve the culture of individual students, even as the students are adapting and being assimilated into a school system. It was the first time that I clearly saw how my own inquiries could dovetail with another project. My interest in these intersections of autonomous cultural identities and shared space revolve more around <u>place</u> and <u>shared resources</u> – but a single study could benefit both sectors (and more!).

And finally, while this not a research topic, the realization that I have support through my nonprofit relationships that other people in this cohort may not have has made it important to me to consider how THESE leaders and THIS program will be sustained. I suppose there could be a research project focused on the members of our cohort, but more likely <u>creating</u> an ongoing and all-encompassing method of collaborative support will require a separate effort. It is on my mind how the Alaska model through the Foraker Group (http://www.forakergroup.org) might be able to inform what we create here. This network model would mean we are already engaged with future cohorts!

I have enjoyed you all so much this week. Here are my musings on our research process and how it relates to the interpretation field. Happy reading.

Lynn

Over the course of the last week, our cohort and Heritage Leadership practitioners from across the country spent extensive time examining fundamental research questions as they relate to the field of Heritage Leadership. Four foundational themes were agreed upon that best reflected the discipline including: relevancy, collaboration, controversy, and leadership. These four themes represent aspects of our overall mission to engage others in the practice of heritage leadership. Exploration of these themes lends itself to greater depth and understanding of heritage leadership which also serves to sustain overall interest and engage newcomers in exploration in the specialty.

In terms of heritage interpretation, the proposed research themes are directly linked to my mission-based work with the National Park Service (NPS). They represent the 21st century skill set needed by every NPS interpreter attempting to engage audiences and facilitate emotional connections and deeper meanings. This engagement acts to break down barriers and provide opportunities for transformative change. Navigating this process without the necessary skills prevents the further professionalization of the entire discipline and only serves to undermine its contribution to wider conversations of a range of social topics including racism, prejudice, economic inequality, and social constructs.

Of the 4 themes explored, I found relevancy and collaboration to be the most dynamic. I want to understand what relevancy is, what it looks like, and how we sustain it. I want to explore the linkage between the demographic visitation data and rates of relevancy. Likewise, I want to examine how collaborative efforts, such as formalized partnerships and informal community groups, support attempts at relevancy and how they fit into the overall pursuit of relevancy.

I find this suite questions of particular interest as a heritage leader because it directly correlates with my work as a heritage interpreter, but also because these processes are driven by people and audiences. As we proceed into the second century of the NPS, the protections of our public lands and natural and cultural heritage are dependent upon our relevancy to the average person’s life. If they are unable to find value in us, we cannot hope to facilitate emotional connections guiding them toward deeper meanings. Without these connections and meanings, we will be unable to fulfill our mission to preserve these invaluable places, spaces, and stories for future generations.

Throughout the past year, the 2016 NPS Centennial campaign was rife with attempts to promote relevancy through inclusion; yet, our agency never defined relevancy for us. We never fully grasped the meaning and by extension the goal. The Centennial was by most accounts a success, but will it last? Frankly, our heritage, our future depends on it. I believe it is possible to achieve relevancy and sustainability for our organizations when we understand what we are working toward and why. The fundamental question, however, is how do we do this.

In the two full days that the cohort spent defining its research mission, I was struck by the efficiency of our group process and how the individual and varied contributions became so collectively competent. On the first day, I felt (personally, not inflicted by others), like a bit of an odd duck in that our panel of experts was heavily weighted to informal education and the talk about sites, parks, and interpretation seemed disconnected from the role that I play as a Heritage Leader. It’s not. I know that. Nonetheless, I left the day determined to identify a purpose that I have and how I can support and contribute to the group. On Day two, we began to see the ideas fit into some thematic categories and within those categories I saw my potential contribution to the cohort and where I can grow in my practice by leaning on the input of my cohort. It was a beautiful epiphany. Birds chirped. The sun shined. Here is the sense that I made of where we landed (with the total realization that there are many more arrows to be made): (attached)

This nuts and bolts guideline effectively hones in on some potential for a solid research question that support the heritage leadership mission for sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture through multiple avenues. First, by a solid focus into the term “heritage” itself. As discussed in our session we have to define the thing. What is it? What isn’t it? What purpose does a concise telling of a collective story serve? To unite? To understand? To create a society that offers justice to all life? As we define the term, we will need to ask questions about where the story starts, how educators can interpret the culture of others, and how to undo flawed education.

As we get to the last part, I find one part of the puzzle that I can help build. I see the subject of mis-education through the lens of an educator perhaps differently than I do through the lens of a student. Because there are so many varying degrees of the “right” story, it is a futile attempt to effect change by claiming that we, as heritage leaders, have discovered the holy grail of historical truth. We simply can’t take on a task that challenges us to educate the world about the truth of its story. Instead, if we look at mis-education as a methods question, we can be effective change agents. Rather than focusing on content, we would be focusing on methods — supporting through research the harmful effect of teaching kids what to think rather than how to think. This requires work through research, teacher-education programs, and professional development of current teachers, most of whom were fed information. We have to shift classrooms to stop the textbook, memorization, worksheet, test cycle that encourages kids to regurgitate information that they don’t understand, and instead create space for students to wonder, collaborate, inquire, and process.
In addition to the Heritage question dealing reconciling mis-education, I am passionate about the role of education in all of the branches: relevancy, controversy, and collaboration. I see direct connections with working collaboratively with informal educators to build web-based experiences to bring students in a traditional classroom to their sites. The power of communication to empower conversations that are often deemed too controversial to discuss is incredibly relevant to schools and I am interested in policy shaping with respect to school structures. Of course, all of us play a leadership role in that we have to take this research agenda to practice, and I am passionate about growing in that senses as well.

So while I curled initially inside myself struggling to find my place, I have emerged from our winter session with energy, reserved confidence, and hope. I see my place clearly and am ready to roll up my sleeves and go into a two and a half year research coma with a group of exceptional students. And I keep pinching myself to see if it’s real.

1. Will the proposed research agenda support heritage leadership for sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture? Why or why not?
As we look at our research agenda, I think it is important to reflect on our three areas of focus. Our research should act as a tripod for supporting a greater idea. Therefore, no one leg should be longer than the other in order for tripod to be balanced and provide the greatest support. I want us to continue to consider how to develop places that people need (all people) instead of places that people visit. We can all sit around and justify that people need nature, but the fact of the matter is that many demographics do not NEED nature as is proved time and time again with their lack of participation in our places. What they need is food, safety, community, and family. How can we research how to support the importance of controversy, relevance, and collaboration? In agreement with Mary, I believe we need to spend more time discussing not the what of what we are teaching but the how. This is be a great challenge for many of us as it is difficult and challenging to reflect a culture that is not our own.

2. How relevant is the proposed research agenda (a) to your work, (b) to your strategies for engaging others, and (c) to your approach to societal challenges?
Currently, the research agenda is not entirely relevant to my work. That being said, presenting things with relevance and collaborative efforts are important to all fields of practice. As I stretch beyond by current position the importance of best practice for communicating across cultures will be imperative. In addition, collaboration across fields to improve access to community resources is intrinsic to the ideas I have for my future investments. I hope to bring people back to the communities that they have built to make stronger cities and stronger people. I feel as though I am gifted in bringing groups and building trust. Where I am lacking is how to talk to these various groups about these difficult topics. I feel that we need to look at how we can build these groups to invest in themselves rather than us continuing to invest in empty causes. Only with the support and investment of the actual communities we are servicing will we be successful. This is a true areas of societal challenge. How do we build trust in ourselves as we look nothing like the group we would like to embrace?
I feel that if we continue to focus on the importance of increasing community involvement our ability to engage others will follow. We cannot continue to function as a society with only one culture. We need to embrace the people and all of the differences that come with that as we research the many opportunities available to us. We also need continued development in how to approach collaborative opportunities between existing organizations and analyze which organizations already exist.
I can not stress enough the importance of changing status quo. There is no purpose to our journey if we continue to only bring certain cultures forward. We need to get deep into our other heritage partners and come together to form a new place that engages all. Accessibility does guarantee inclusiveness. Inclusiveness is only present when we actually engage with the population that we hope to serve.

3. With respect to the proposed research agenda, which topics or questions energize you? Which topics or questions would be most likely to elicit a high level of commitment from you? Why?
Collaboration excites me. Crossing cultural lines and divisions are areas that empower me and increase my drive. There is no better accomplishment for an individual and a community than to bring together existing groups to benefit each other. Connecting people to empower each other is a win win situation. New people and ideologies work together, respect is earned, and healing takes place. A healing that the nation so desperately needs at this current time in history. Bringing different minds together can change the world. We can be that catalyst.
Controversy is an area that I find challenging. It is difficult and uncomfortable, but from great failures can come great opportunities. If we can break through these difficult times and create a space of safety and inclusiveness we can finally work together to mend fences. It will be challenging, it will be unpleasant, and it will be eye-opening, but it will also be healing and empowering.

Following the guidance of many of our invited guests, I’m trying to model their advice that we keep a good record of how we got to where we ended up. A bit of a description of our methodology. So, here is a recording of how we formed our first ideas around our research agenda!

Our Cohort was asked to divide into small breakout groups and start to consider questions under four major topic areas that the group is coalescing around, after four days of conversation. We have been discussing what it means to be a Heritage Leader and what our collective work might demonstrate as critical components to effective heritage leadership. Our goal was to start a dialog together, to identify some areas we would explore as a cohort in a cohesive research agenda.

Four topics were given as options – Heritage, Relevancy, Controversy, and Collaboration. Our large cohort group then divided into four separate groups, and began conversation on what type of questions we had about the four major areas.

Relevancy
Why do different groups use/connect with the outdoors
What are the barriers of the outdoors/nature
How do “we” stay relevant in a post-fact world?
Why aren’t there more leaders of instruction that better represent the diversity of the population they educate?
How do we break the “green ceiling” to mainstream environmental/education leaders? Who are the cultural brokers we could work with
How do we help (as educators, interpreters, organizers, etc) to preserve the heritage of young people in American public schools? (when they are forced to assimilate to local culture)
How is origin determined and to what end? – for individuals, for place, for…
How do we overcome cultural/relevancy barriers
What are the access/.entry points to nature/heritage?

Collaboration
How can schools and communities work together on cultural competency
What is the tipping point to get ideas viral? When do things become a movement?
How does emotion serve as a catalyst in Community Movements?
What drives policy? People drive policy? Policy drives people?
What tools/knowledge /skills/behaviors do practitioners need?
How do you combine “western science” and “other ways of knowing” to reach/connect with others?
Can there be too many non-profits to be sustainable? How do nonprofits self-regulate and provide forums that are equitable and socially just?
What factors enable some organizations or groups of leaders to harness the power and emotion of an idea and transform it into effective action for change?
Factors could include:
Policy
Technology
Science
Stories
Traditional knowledge
Equity
Economics
How can community organizing be a form of interpretation?
What happens on the edge of change? Transition points are crucial?
Evaluation – what’s the “spark for action” How do we measure impact?

Controversy
How doe we go from “Gatekeepers of knowledge” to democratic knowledge?
MisEducation – How it Happened and why it keeps happening
Education System (public, homeschool, private, charter, parochial)
Media
Hollywood
Willful Blindness
Cultural Norms
Economics of information
What is the role of marketing play in “inner truths”
A willing sacrifice self beliefs for instant needs – et, $$$, styrofoam plates, cheaper vs paper reuse, etc
How do we hold “creative tension” lightly in our hands
How powerful is money in defining terms – Heritage
How do we build safe spaces to talk about race, privilege?

Our four small groups were then asked to put all our ideas (which we recorded on sticky notes) against the major themes. At the end, you could see the questions each of the four groups raised, for each of the four topic matters.

While we all thought that was amazing enough work, and we were mentally exhausted, our excellent faculty leadership team had more in mind for us! They asked each of the four groups to choose one of the four topic areas, read all the comments, and identify common themes. At the end of that exercise, we were asked to develop three major questions out of all that we had seen.

Major Topic: Relevancy

There were over 50 individual stickies attached to the board of “Relevancy”. At first the group really struggled to see commonalities between them. Slowly, we started to simply move the stickies around on the wall, placing what seemed like similar comments together. Before long, we started to see patterns, and ultimately identified 10 major areas we thought the 50+ stickies formed into

Three major questions: again, in the beginning we were hard pressed to develop meaningful questions from the 10 sub-areas. After conversation, we found that several (e.g., education, health, space/place, science) were really describing ways things may be relevant to someone. For instance, a person may come to a place for seeking to take a walk to improve their health, or to experience science through bird watching. Once we reached that realization, it became easier to form the following quesitons:

1) What does successful relevancy look like? Who gets to make the decision as to what is relevant? How do different characteristics of ourselves affect relevancy (age, gender, race, etc).
2) What are the barriers to heritage access, and why are the access points that are provided not used? Are the intrinsic or extrinsic factors?
3) How do we measure the impacts of qualitative moments? We have lots of anecdotal evidence, but not strong quantitative evidence to demonstrate the impact of relevant moments on various people.

Conclusion:

All in the group felt successful and accomplished in defining three insightful questions that could help lead our whole cohort to a meaningful research agenda. It was a hard task, and required each of us to not only synthesize our own thoughts and those we formed with our small group, but also to understand the direction and intent of questions that had come from other small groups. We are excited not only by what we heard in our group, but the questions posed by the other groups around the remaining topics (Heritage, Collaboration, and Controversy). We look forward to further investigation and inquiry.

The research questions posed by the cohort will support the multiple facets of heritage leadership by finding answers to difficult questions and helping educators and interpreters manage conflict, achieve relevancy with their sites and programming, and collaborate with their audience and other agencies. By aiming for these three main ideas, the diversity of past and future heritage will be maintained and preserved. Focusing on conflict, collaboration, and relevance from beginning to end will cause diverse voices and stories to be heard. When diverse stories are heard, people are more empathetic, more likely to participate in culture, feel more connected to each other, and more connected to the land. As such, sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture are closely connected concepts and all will be positively impacted through the work of the cohort.

This research agenda is relevant to my work because I teach a captive audience of students, many of whom spend their entire lives in rural areas. Community college provides an opportunity for many people who exist in a rather closed-off space to engage with people, places, ideas, and stories that they would otherwise never experience. I am interested in not only broadening the world-view of my students, but also building connections with informal and other formal entities to design programs that further the values of sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture. The research on boundary-spanning and having difficult controversal conversations is particularly interesting to me as someone from an urban environment who works in a rural setting. Those skills will make my daily interactions with others and my approaches to societal challenges more meaningful and effective.

I am most energized by the ideas of collaboration and boundary-spanning. I think of collaboration as not only spanning the boundaries between the educator and the audience, but also between different groups of educators. A collaborative model results in experiences that are more powerful than any one entity could achieve alone. Collaboration also means co-creating the program for the needs of the community or audience. Building trust and relationships through collaboration will facilitate deeper connections to natural and social heritage. I would be most committed to building relationships that foster nature and culture connections in people who would otherwise not have the opportunity to make those connections. This research would also strengthen connections that already exist in people that have been privileged enough to make them.

During the week of January 9, after four days of deep exploring, our Heritage Leader cohort surfaced four major topic areas (Heritage, Relevancy, Controversy and Collaboration) to begin the process of developing our research questions. It’s heartening to see that all four of these topics are relevant within my work, strategies for engaging others and approaches to societal challenges and that will support the full engagement needed to move forward!

The two topics that are resonating most with me, in terms of my work, is relevancy and controversy. Relevancy is something we must always be mindful of when looking at how we can connect with and engage the public that we serve. Some research questions, that we’ve developed in our short time together, that I would like to explore further is:
1. What are the various access/entry points to nature and heritage? What are some barriers to these access points?
2. How do we break the “green ceiling “of the mainstream environment movement? Who are our cultural brokers?
3. How do we measure the impacts of qualitative moments? (We have a lot of anecdotal evidence, but not strong quantitative evidence to demonstrate the impact of relevant moments on various people.)

Unfortunately, I can see controversy arising more within our own agency with the incoming Administration. It’s my hope that climate change and science won’t be challenged too much within our own agency but I also realize the pull of politics so I can’t help to be a bit concerned. I also recognize that we need to communicate science and climate change externally as well. With that in mind, the research questions (in regards to controversy) that I’d be interested in exploring are:
1. How can we interpret/communicate science in a post-fact environment?
2. How do you combine “Western Science” with “Other ways of Knowing” to reach/connect with others?

For strategies for engaging others and approaches to societal challenges, I see a couple of questions that if addressed can help further our collective goals as Heritage Leaders within our discussion of Collaboration. These questions included:
1. How can schools and communities work together on cultural competency?
2. What is the tipping point to get ideas viral? When do things become a movement?

The topics and questions that most energize me and will most likely elicit a high level of commitment are the ones dealing with relevancy stated above. They’re also topics and questions that I face in my day to day work so I’ll have more support from my agency. Though I see a link to all of the topics we’ve discussed.

I can also commit to assisting with any kind of evaluation that we pursue. I’m not at all an expert but I have put evaluation in practice and have some background in measuring outcomes. I’m also familiar with logic models and theory of change in context of planning and evaluation.
This has been a very energizing week!

Amy Markle
EDU 7610/ Intercession
Final Reflection
Being tasked with the challenge of narrowing down the focus of Heritage Leadership and the three pillars of education, the environment and social justice to a handful of researchable questions is no small task. I am in awe of our team of program leaders, field mentors and cohort classmates to meet that challenge this week. The process that ensued and outcomes that were developed was best described from our facilitator Kim Sikoryak as an, “organic whole”. At times, I felt like we were on a road trip with some knowledgeable drivers and a map that got us off the beaten track. This allowed us to explore ideas around the established framework. Through the ideas, we often found ourselves back at the main “road” trying to understand the basic tenets of heritage leadership such as its definition. Overall, the outcomes of our research agenda strongly support my work and the themes of our program, knowledge needs within the field and I am energized about researching many of the formulated questions.
The process that we followed to reach our proposed research agenda allowed for creative flow, informal discussion and great insight by our professors and invited mentor team. As a cohort, we were able to explore the issues and ideas surrounding heritage leadership and some common themes emerged. This preliminary brainstorm was important because, it helped us contextualize the needs that the invited mentor team described. From continued discussion and analysis of emerging themes the following chart was created:

Heritage——-Relevancy———–Leadership
=——Collaboration
——-Controversy

The chart was instrumental in brainstorming research questions as they related to heritage, relevancy, controversy and collaboration. We felt as a group that the outcome of leadership would emerge from each area and didn’t need its own specific questions at this time. Four teams were created to brainstorm questions and the top 3-4 research questions were vetted. I feel confident in the cohort that the questions generated are substantive and would be extremely valuable to the field of heritage leadership and both formal and nonformal education.
The proposed research agenda will support heritage leadership for sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture. The 3-4 research questions generated in the areas of focus will contribute to the knowledge base and have tangible outcomes to support professionals in the field. Outcomes may include: tool boxes to best practices to heritage education including key concepts and skills, steps to reconcile miseducation and the means to move forward, identification of organizational barriers that prevent conversations about controversial tropics, established strategies for mitigating unconscious bias within organizations, strategies for using the Theory of Transformative Leadership in the engagement of controversial conversations, tool sheet with the steps of collaborative process including the best space to support it, developed methodologies to repairing failed collaboration, best practices in collaborating with audiences to drive transformative change within an organization, defining successful relevancy and creating a tool for measurement, understanding who makes the decisions as to what is relevant and looking at different generational views of relevancy, and understanding barriers to access heritage and ways they can be overcome. Field mentor, Dr. Ana Houseal noted that is should take an average of 4 months to establish a solid research question that will steer our efforts in coming years. I am confident the questions generated will produce outcomes both tangible and intangible that will have the potential to significantly contribute to the field both on a practical and theoretical basis. Also, I could envision a book collectively developed similar to the one Dr. Coble showed us called Nature and the Human Spirit, that would have a focus with the themes in the program.
The research agenda greatly supports my work, methods in which I engage others and my approach to societal challenges. I work at a nature center where I am constantly collaborating with other organizations, so research pertaining to successful collaboration and repairing damaged collaborative relationships would be valuable. We teach a variety of controversial topics such as human population growth and climate change, so best methods for engagement in controversial education/engagement could be instrumental in the success of student’s ease and understanding of such subjects. I think as the educator, having a tool kit and implementing best practices would lend to increased confidence and success. Also, I work with an incredible diversity of audiences, so research about intergenerational relevancy would be helpful to be more inclusive in reaching audiences with educational messages. Overall, the outcomes of the proposed research themes and questions would help improve my work on a daily basis.
The area(s) of research that I am most energized about have to do with access and barriers to heritage. I know I am not alone when it comes to understanding how audiences would best like to access heritage and what challenges are in the way of doing so. The site I work at struggles with this issue in a significant way. We have observed that our core audience is white middle class people from neighboring cities. As a staff, we grapple with how to attract the highly diverse residents of our own community. We have not discerned how the community would like to access our site (i.e. though programming, recreation, special events, etc.), and what may be preventing them to do so (i.e. costs, transportation, lack of information and or interest). I have to think that our site is not alone in this struggle, I am confident that research in this area could impact heritage sites across the country and potentially aid in the increase of visitor access. This is all very exciting, as would love for all to feel like heritage sites are theirs to explore and connect with, and they are an important part of our collective story and community.
In reflecting back on this week, it was an amazing experience to vet our ideas and questions into a handful of research themes. I am excited to have the opportunity and privileged to work with such an incredible cohort, team of professors and mentors in the field. I am confident we will be able to give back to the field of heritage and respective areas of work in a significant way. The ripple effects of our research efforts will have enormous outcomes. I know we will produce a body of knowledge that will have both intangible and tangible results that will aid in the success of all who seek to connect with inclusive heritage in formal and informal settings.

This time has been productive in defining and clarifying our research topics for the program. My key difficulty with the process has been the fact that I have been unable to attend all of the session. Job constraints have kept me from being physically present. However, the gift of a snow day gave me a day to share in the discussion with the group around our research question.

Our goal on Friday was to organize and discuss one of the 4 main themes(Heritage, Relevancy, Controversy and Collaboration) discussed over the last 4 days to create a research question for the group. How do these four themes lead to leadership. Our theme was Heritage. The following are the three main questions the group developed during the 4 days.

Heritage:

Three main questions:

Where and how do we start to continue the story and space of all heritage and make it effective.

What skills and concepts are necessary for interpreting a culture not our own?

How do we reconcile our historic miseducation and move forward?

To get to this point we spent time discussing three main points from which we developed the questions: creating heritage, empowerment, and reconciliation. We spent most of our discussion time in reconciliation. The discussion of miseducation took much of the time.
With two teachers in the group a discussion centered on how to teach or interpret another person’s culture.

At this point I feel we are a little broad in our research agenda. The questions that my group worked on still need some refining. I still am not sure what our overarching “essential question” is . Defining each of the parts to the question is one of the first task. During this time we started to do this, but there is still work to do. I feel that some of this may have been accomplished, but because I was unable to attend on Wednesday and Thursday until afternoon. I missed the definitions. I am looking forward to reading other reflections and watching the video for those days. I am hoping that it will bring together some of the areas that I am still feeling confused about. Breaking down heritage into themes was helpful for me. I resonated most with collaboration , but ended up working with developing questions for heritage.

Much of this work focus will connect to education, so for me this intercession was helpful in understanding the role of informal educators in this process. Although I have worked with informal educators in the past. This time gave me the ability to see more clearly what they do and how they feel education happens at their sites and in outreach. My goal through this program is in developing structures and systems that allow formal and informal educators to work more closely together to support learning.

The discussions during class and out were helpful to me. The discussion on what “miseducation is” and then what “good education is” was a good starting point, but I would like to delve more deeply into it. As part of our agenda is creating literacy in culture, science and social justice, defining what that education will look like is essential to moving forward. The discussions with Amanda and others in the parks service was extremely helpful. Already I know the constraints on me as a teacher, but this allowed me to see the things that pull interpreters away from educating the public. I was also able to see the limitations put on them from above. We are all aware of our struggles in achieving our goals, but this allowed me to see what others struggle with. If we are going to work together to affect change, it will be important to fully see the strengths and struggles of our partners.

Topics focused on education, specifically on collaboration between formal and informal education are where I feel the most energized and committed. I already have developed relationships and work within this system, but it is an area that I feel will be instrumental in creating a more equitable and effective educational system. As a society, we have to stop thinking of education as limited to a classroom. Already all of us learn just as much outside of the classroom as we do in. For me the question is how do we ensure that the education we receive in and out of the classroom flows and builds on itself? How do we develop relationships around learning that leave all parties feeling they not only have a voice in the system, but that they are physically, emotionally and socially vested in the system? For me education is my passion. I feel that without it we will never have a society that recognizes and accepts all of its members.

I know there are others in the group also interested around this subject. It was enlightening to talk with them specifically Amanda and J. C. this week to see their perspective on this aspect of our journey and hear the insight they had into this subject.

1. Will the proposed research agenda support heritage leadership for sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture? Why/why not?

Most definitely! I believe that most barriers occur internally- our ego vs. the world. Having contributed to the workshop in defining Heritage- I believe that we may have identified the “tools” needed in order to investigate the obstacles that we may face in developing our personal research project. Admitting that battling our ego- means facing the challenges: How can we meld ideas with personal beliefs with varied occupations? We are forced to branch over into the ZPD as we studied in Vygotsky. The answer is: Defined in my personal definition of Heritage. I am coming to believe that Heritage is inclusive, meaning that everyone has a role in defining the process of what we will contribute to our society. Secondly, Heritage is not meant to exist in the present day. It is our responsibility in being Heritage Leaders to orchestrate access to opportunities that incorporate our links to Heritage with our present day culture to further accommodate our futures. I believe that by acting as Heritage Leaders we can connect with our communities and facilitate awareness. The challenge will be to develop a program of study that will be incorporated/needed in our future lives as a society of cultural learners.
We, collectively, defined various mapping connections to developing, defining, producing, encouraging, recognizing, and researching topics that we, as Heritage Leaders may utilize in our studies. We (humbly, recognizing the extensive lengthy hours spent in each of the 7 days)have collaboratively connected. I know that this sounds redundant in connecting collaboratively v. connected! Our intersession course was elaborately planned. We were provided insight from fellow researchers, professors, Interpreters for our Parks, Financial management for our parks, formal educators(like us-from another cohort, cohort members traveling from BangKok, Paris, Alaska, Michigan, researchers in anthropology, scientist for the fish and wildlife, researcher working in our zoos (SanDiego and St Louis) ! By recognizing the diversity in our backgrounds we are recognizing our similarities in needs and wants directed towards our futures. I am most impressed as to how so many people, basically put their personal lives “on hold” to not only attend, but to submerge themselves in our intensive planning for our Heritage Leadership coursework. People took off work(vacation days), paid to travel the distance, Paid to stay in hotels, paid to eat out and just: put their personal lives aside to collaborate in order to help build our Heritage Leadership for Sustainability, Social Justice, and Participatory Culture. To be submerged with such dedication and personal commitment has every ability to spark creativity and motivation! We worked long hours on our assignments during classes and for most evenings- past 10 pm. Pictures of us collaborating in the hotel, working together, creating substantial products for our classwork are proudly displayed on facebook and our personal phone messaging – How Cool! The reward is truly recognizing our Heritage and respecting the work in our cohort which will guide our research as Heritage Leaders.

2. How relevant is the proposed research agenda (a) to your work, (b) to your strategies for engaging others, and (c) to your approach to societal challenges?
My career as a formal educator has the possibility to affect many people. I am learning that just by connecting to one person, the powers of idea, strenght and change will occur. I am learning that we build connections with people by opening up and sharing our own story. Usually, a personal narrative or advice used to converse with another. I believe that my students may remember something that I have said, some humorous connection, personal advice or mentoring- or just that I have been nice and approachable. I am learning to not discredit the past experiences and to value those. It is those past “connections” that build our Heritage. I, being an educator, hold many possibilities in my hands! I hope that with my energy and empathy that I can earn the trust of my students and their families in order to build upon all of our futures. My Theory of Change is spiraling around creating a mentoring program with our students in Berkeley which is located in the Ferguson-Florissant School District. I hope to measure socio-economic factors in which may provide valuable insight to predicting emotional gains in our school district. Much despair has occurred in the past 2.5 years and hurt combined with mis-education in overshadowing progress in education. A great amount of anger, hurt, racial tension, political mistrust and anxiety is smothering our neighborhoods. I am learning to not be silent. Much insight was sparked, today, during the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Observance sponsored by the UMSL Diversity & Inclusion committee. The program : “Dr King’s dream and legacy are for Everyone: How will we end fear, hatred, violence and silence?” was energizing! The guest speaker- Farai Chideya, mentioned the importance of giving back to our communities. She evoked our emotions by emphasizing that we are FAMILY not just by suggestion. I realized that I was acting in “silence” in our teaching community. Our students have been acting in discrimination towards me, much so more since the death of Michael Brown (fellow community family member) I responded in shock and ego. “Why say those things to me? I was born two blocks down the road, I grew up in our neighborhoods, I attended our schools in our district, I have always taught in our district (27 years?), I have bought homes in our district, what the heck?I was insulted when presented with the terms “white entitlement!” I am learning to understand community feelings and realize that just as that -hummingbird that attempted to put out the fire, one drop at a time- so am I. My self worth is valuable! I can make a difference in my family of Heritage Leaders!
3. With respect to the proposed research agenda, which topics or questions energize you? Which topics or questions would be most likely to elicit a high level of commitment from you? Why?
Controversy- I am finding the power from within to challenge those with racial tension in my school district. I can read research with zoning in school districts and compare the “haves and have nots” in school resources throughout my school district. Controversy may also be within my race. I imagine that people will question my motives because I am white. I am learning that a tension is there. Some people want to fight their own battles and believe that I would have no idea as how to connect to their suffering.
Relevancy- Barriers are with race. May also be with gender. We have a Muslim base in our community and my expectations of equality differ from them. I need to learn be challenged in creating opportunities for communication.
Collaboration- Currently, I am trying to create a mentoring program. A collaboration among the faculty is needed in order to meet the needs of our students. Collaboration among the students is needed in order to build a trust for working with our adults in our building. The students need to learn to trust each other- maybe leadership will grow and less dependence on street gangs and “artificial families” my disappear?
Creating Opportunities- Our neighborhood churches are collaborating with our schools. They are providing cookies and after school study places. After School sporting programs are offering a safe place and situations for guidance in teamwork, too. Families often come to support their students in sports. I, being a coach, am available to help mentor our youth. At games and practices I have the chances to work with our students both in the classroom and on the court/field.
Teamwork, sportsmanship, academics, social maturity, trust and love are all qualities that we have the opportunity to foster by being an formal educator which is synonymous for being defined as a Heritage Leader.

Attachments:

The last week has been extremely encouraging and motivating. I was not quite sure what to expect coming into this week (especially because for most of the fall semester, I felt a bit anxious about the role that I would play in this program). Even after this intense week of collaboration, I still feel as though I am not 100% sure what to expect about what the future holds for me as a scholar in the heritage leadership program. I feel as though this is what most of the program will be like for me because I wholeheartedly believe that being a social justice warrior and heritage leader means rolling with the constant punches that are being thrown our way (and I do mean this in a very positive way). This week has provided me with an energy that I have not felt in a while. Being in a room with like-minded people (folks who want to transform communities), being vulnerable through storytelling, and working toward creating a research agenda that fits all aspects of heritage leadership for sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture has truly been empowering.

Throughout the week, we met to discuss the many aspects that make up heritage leadership. Through continuous collaboration, all doctoral students were able to share the types of work that they are doing across the world while also exploring how this program would best fit into our own agendas for academic, professional, and social success. We were able to, as a collaborative force, come up with a research agenda that I feel meets the needs and interests of all involved in the program. While I am confident that this agenda goes hand-in-hand with the work that I am doing (or plan on doing) as a social justice scholar, educator, and organizer, I am looking forward to continuously exploring the core “values” that we essentially all came up with in order to be the best heritage leader possible. The four competencies that we came up with as a group include: heritage, collaboration, controversy, and relevancy. All four of these have a direct relationship with the work that I have done in the past, am doing now, and plan on pursuing in the future.

As a former community organizer, I witnessed firsthand what needed to be done in order to strengthen the collective power of people which, in turn, was intended to transform Latino communities in New Orleans. As an organizer, I worked to preserve the heritage of people from Central and South America through continuous advocacy and policy work, as well as through leadership and educational development. Part of my work as an organizer, as well as through what I am doing now as a school leader requires constant collaboration with others. Further, being a social justice warrior also means having extremely tough conversations and making decisions that are not always popular (this is where I think controversy falls within my frame of work). Lastly, all of the work that I have done and continue to do is extremely relevant to me personally, as I have experienced first-hand the disadvantages that people within my communities have been victims to. The work that I continue to do and the beliefs that I continue to fight for are relevant to moving people forward. Lifting up people and communities is my life’s calling, and participating in this program with people who feel the same way will certainly enhance the roles that I play in multiple communities.

After having had the opportunity to talk to my colleagues, I was able to dig deeper into thinking about the direction that I would want to take my research. Initially, I came into this week wanting to work with others on building culturally competent educators, but as time progressed, I began to feel like this would be a small component to my work. It was not until we met on the icy day at the Drury that it finally hit me (while talking to my group, but especially through collaborating with Laurie): I wanted to dig deeper into the idea of working to preserve the heritage of children within public school systems. It is obvious that children tend to either lose or hide their heritage due to this assimilation (or cultural appropriation) process that occurs in schooling. What can educators do to work on preserving this heritage (or even identity) that tends to be lost when children become a part of our schools? How can formal and informal educators work toward this heritage preservation process? What will this process entail? One thing that the keynote speaker at the MLK Celebration noted was that people could share their heritage and culture through the arts (visual, dance, etc.). Nowadays, the arts are the first things to go in public schooling. Could re-emphasizing our times and efforts on the arts help preserve the heritage of children? How, during an era of standardized testing, can the arts play a critical role in this process?

These are all things that continuously came to mind as I reflected each evening. I am looking very forward to the continuous collaborative relationship that we will continue to have as the next two and a half years progress. Further, moving forward, I also am excited to dig deeper into the art and science behind “leadership” in order to feel even more confident in the work that I am doing in the community. I have no doubt that through this program, we are transforming the fields of sustainability and social justice. I cannot wait to continue making history with this team!

1. Will the proposed research agenda support heritage leadership for sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture? Why or why not?
2. How relevant is the proposed research agenda (a) to your work, (b) to your strategies for engaging others, and (c) to your approach to societal challenges?
3. With respect to the proposed research agenda, which topics or questions energize you? Which topics or questions would be most likely to elicit a high level of commitment from you? Why?

1. Will the proposed research agenda support heritage leadership for sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture? Why or why not?
My overall interpretation of the winter intercession was reaffirming our value and purpose in the program. We are the initial participants of a new leadership development cohort. Our group were succinct in addressing several themes which included Heritage, relevancy, controversy, and collaboration. Additionally, we were gifted guidance and support with suggested research from the panel of experts. Personally, I felt that themes addressed by the panel were more substantial due to the urgency and need for “real world” application. These themes I observed included “ Access, Process, Self-Awareness, Policy, and transformative education.” Each of these themes can be addressed through sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture. In searching to discover our group’s purpose, I feel that we must address the importance of perspective. Do we focus on the pressure to meet these need, our do we look at this from an opportunistic perspective to make our education program a model for this change.
2. How relevant is the proposed research agenda (a) to your work, (b) to your strategies for engaging others, and (c) to your approach to societal challenges?
Heritage, relevancy, controversy, and collaboration are all necessary tools to be addressed in today’s society. However, awareness of these themes, and educating others of these factors would help make our research relevant. For example, “How can we address relevancy of climate change for individuals who are numb to the immediate access to resources within their area, which includes community parks, and museums?” “How can we address issues of access in regards to rural areas and metropolitan in the United States? Throughout our first semester, I observed feelings of despair and conviction due to the litany of problems faced by society. I often view society and various cultural trends and as an extension of human behavior relevant to their eras. The proposed research agendas should be viewed as opportunity for contributing and making our program meaningful and substantial to our fields and communities. I feel that viewing our research agenda is relevant to my current work which would support sustainability, and social justice.
3. With respect to the proposed research agenda, which topics or questions energize you? Which topics or questions would be most likely to elicit a high level of commitment from you? Why?
I feel that utilizing a specific population in which data can be measured would be the best start. For example, I would like to explore the benefits of educating others in the judicial system into seeking refuge and relaxation through access and exposure to community parks in the metropolitan areas. Contritely, I would like to also observe the access to these areas for individuals in similar programs in rural areas, and observe how does it effect their perspective?” Below, I outlined various questioned addressed during the panel. Each of these questions can be asked to our target group in defining Heritage, relevancy, leadership, which would engage the culture in participation.
D. Transformative Education
1. Research
a. How do we create Affinity?
b. What do the people want?
c. What can we give the community to help them?
d. What can be created to improve their experience?
e. How do we make these stories accessible?
f. How do we utilize the power of real?
g. How do we create a future for Heritage?
h. What does social change looks like?
i. How do we change policy?
j. How do we transform education?
k. How do we define our culture?
(1) What is Culture?
(2) What is Heritage?
(a) What is acceptable?
(b) What is rejected?

Attachments:

The proposed research will support the agenda of heritage leadership, social justice, and participatory culture because through days of brainstorming, concept mapping, and forming of ideas, it has the elements critical to addressing; relevancy and resiliency, controversy, collaboration boundary-spanning, and heritage. The research of this course will reflect all the elements because our backgrounds as a cohort has related meaning and understanding as it is also laced with our career paths and our positions in life and as human beings.

The proposed research agenda fits into my work, my strategies for engaging others, and to my approach for social challenges with using the problems as opportunity. Although we have gone through the processes and the ideas of the best practice to address the issues, the real meat and muscle in the success is to not allow for this work to just be another piece of document that sits on a shelf in my office, but to use it as the daily process or in strategies for future action of heritage in our personal lives and our professional career lives. The research agenda is a good segway to engage those who I work with in the interpretive field as well as with random visitors. I am thinking of bringing up the research elements to discuss when I do my next seasonal interpretation training, as well as my children when they are working on history, social justice, and with learning about their own culture. I never used to put myself on agenda’s for community events or being present with attending local movements for changes and I am seeing myself rethink where I can exercise my efforts to approach societal change.

With respect to the proposed research agenda, the topics on heritage inclusion for all cultures and to embrace differences and learn to move forward together with deeper understanding, is a topic that energizes me. As I am learning on the other stories and not just the single story told in textbooks or in history classes, we need to act on the dangers by telling all the stories and doing it with better understanding and without defiance. The history of our people and our world needs to receive the full disclosure as it is appropriate to the time and space of the subject and with whom it is being addressed. The commitment to work out the research agenda, with approaches or with collecting an appropriate data is also pertinent for it to continue being a living document.

The struggle and problem for me personally is that in the 19 years of working with a government bureau, I am conditioned to work inside the laid out borders and to not challenge policy. My mind is slowly shifting to how I am able to think of the future with this heritage leadership program as a new conditioning of my possibilities in policy change. I remember as I went through my first equal employee opportunity complaint with a manager who was way above my pay grade, and the support staff from the human resources office, whom was assisting me told me, “You can make a difference and change, by becoming a leader, getting into a management position, and changing policy.” That was about 18 years ago, and it still resonates with me as we identify and share personal and professional struggles with injustice, ideas of relevancy and resiliency, controversy, collaboration boundary-spanning, and heritage.

The week with the cohort was filled to the top of the glass, and on some days overflowing, with learning and enhancing the learning of all with the help of the prestigious guests who participated and also with the instructors guide and support. The face to face time has pieced in the puzzle of making this agenda and project a living document that is making us continue to debate ourselves through our ouch moments, our ah ha moments, and our what does this mean moments, into becoming the change we want to see in the world.

I spoke about learning Navajo (Dine Language) from my grandmother, Eva Clark, with a few people and on how I spent summers with her in her traditional Navajo home, a hogan, and today as I boarded my flight home, she passed and her spirit left this World, Mother Earth. She was near and dear to my heart as in any little girl who is very close to their grandmother. I will miss her very much.

Through an enlightening week together, our cohort of heritage leaders gathered for the first time face-to-face, to collaborate, brainstorm, question and propose a research agenda for our spring semester. Our first few days together were spent learning about each other as individuals, where we come from, what brought us to this program, comparing our passions, differences and similarities. With bonds established almost instantly, discussing proposed topics for our research agenda was a task we were up to. On Thursday we heard from 20+ community supporters and fellow heritage leaders, proposing numerous questions and topics for our research agenda. I found this to be overwhelming and yet so inspiring, the amount of opportunities that are in need of heritage leaders to tackle.

I feel that our proposed research agenda overall supports heritage leadership for sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture. As a team, we narrowed our ideas to four areas of focus (Heritage, Controversy, Collaboration and Relevancy). I was disappointed not being able to be present the day(s) these themes were determined, but was very pleased with what our group settled on. I can identify relevance in each of these areas, personally, academically, and professionally and have just the right team to collaborate with throughout the remainder of our program together.

This agenda is relevant to my work at the Missouri Botanical Garden as a world-renowned institution for research, conservation, and education. I am still new in my role as the volunteer coordinator for the Education Division but have been able to identify obstacles for awhile that only a heritage leader may be up for resolving. I am proud of where I work and find fulfillment in the challenges that come with my position. One of the motivators that lead me to this program included the goals I have to strengthen the volunteer training to include more interpretation strategies, cultural awareness, sensitivity training and equip these individuals to be able to adapt to uncomfortable situations working with the general public. Our volunteer group currently does not reflect St. Louis culture and I’m hoping this program will help guide me to grow our program by generating a more diverse volunteer corps. Heritage, conflict, collaboration, and relevance all play a part in my role currently and I’m looking forward to seeing how this will unfold as I evaluate my long-term professional goals.

I’m energized knowing that I have the unique opportunity to move through my graduate program with this amazing group of leaders that I am proud to call my colleagues and friends. I feel that this opportunity over the next few years is going to help me to grow into the individual and leader I have the potential and longing to be. I’m looking so forward to seeing our collaboration unfold during this time, being applied in varying ways in each of our communities and sites. Energized is exactly the word to describe how I feel, only a semester and a week into this program. When I started last fall I could not tell you what heritage leadership was. Coming a long way in such a short period is an understatement. Overall I feel that our research agenda will certainly serve as a roadmap and guide, to help ground us, keep us focused and optimistic about our work. This week together has helped to prepare me to challenge and strengthen my goals, ambition and will push me to grow and absorb all I can this semester.

A Research Agenda for Heritage Leadership in the 21st Century Final Reflection

Inspire, Empower, and Impact

On January 9th I boarded a plane in San Francisco with my new notebook, laptop, show and tell items for the course, and an overwhelming feeling of what am I doing? This week provided an opportunity for us as the ED.D cohort to come together as our own community of leadership heritage students. The classes ended on with a group outing to UMSL campus for the Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance: Dr. King’s dream and legacy are for EVERYONE: How will be end fear, hatred, violence and silence? My reflection consists of three components: inspire, empower, and impact which were provided to us (by Justin Andrews, MC) at the Dr. King celebration.

Inspire
On Tuesday, our cohort came together for the first time in winter session face-to-face in the EdCollabitat or the Technology Learning Center in the College of Education (Marillac Hall, UMSL South Campus). The first conversation that Dr. Theresa Coble led us on was a group discussion and she talked about our possible anxiety. This component was reiterated by Dr. Carl Hoagland when he brought up the fact of us not thinking we “know it” or that “what if they find out”. This section of the general introduction was crucial to us moving forward. The fact that we as a group were recognizing our own needs or aspects of how we might be hesitating to engage or how this “anxiety” might be the thing that could continue to hold us back from sharing our full-self. We needed to recognize our own possible change before we dove into societal changes. The room and having everyone jump into organizing and setting up the “living room” of our cohort house for the week – also gave us as a group a chance to participate in what the layout was for the week, how could be make it inviting and comfortable. I believe this was a key component, the time of gathering, giving us time to move chairs, setup coffee, and time to ease into who we were with others in the room, it was real, there was no computer screen in between us and them. We were touchable and vulnerable for the first time – but it was happening to all of us at the same time. This component to be defines inspiration, because seeing how everyone jumped in to the space, introduced themselves with compassion, shared their personal stories during those first couple of days helped me to feel inspired to truly recognize that I was part of this movement. I still have that anxiety of what am I doing, but it is falls in line with inspire. There is this team – cohort, that I am now a part of, I have been welcomed into and they inspire me. I do not want to let them down. I want to take this energy and understand where it can take us. That is again inspiring and I want to be a part of that as we move forward.

Empower
On Thursday, we had to give self-introduction included the invited guests that were in the room. The session was facilitated as we talked about the we as individuals live in, what heritage opportunities exist and what possible work to move forward in this field and with our program. Each person introduced themselves, students and guest speakers. During our introductions there was a variety of context that was provided, that would support, what am I doing here? What am I? We were asked during the presentation to take pause and write any short words or phrases that we connected to on the post-its that were provided. As our cohort of students and the presenters spoke, I found myself overwhelmed but empowered by the thoughts and goals that they shared of what this research agenda could look like and include. I wanted to share some of the thoughts I included in my notebook:
• Reflections on indigenous communities and cultural genocide
• Learning who I am and how do I fit into my life
• Trainers and how can we include traditional knowledge
• Interpersonal – leadership – importance of self reflection, self 1st
• Sustainability, unseen communities and their role in sustainability
• Modern cultural narratives about what are social norms of certain communities and their connections to parks and nature
• What are our own stories, how do we learn other stories
• Lifelong learning
• Enabling others to empower themselves
• Places, connections, stories, impact on the discussion
• What does it mean to be a productive citizen?
• Leadership and cultural clarification
• Love of science, love of nature, how to facilitate relationships of people with science
• Empowering other people, and spaces to engage
• Science literary and civic engagement
• Wanting to change acceptance, understanding power, passion
• Controversy and why it is important to recognize and engage
• History vs. heritage, facts, deep meaning making

This list is just a couple of components that I pulled out that truly engage me. When you review this list of thoughts, you can see that the word empower is mentioned. As we moved forward in the process this week, having these introductions provided content where could share what we felt passionate about, but really what context or research could empower us as heritage leaders for change in sustainability, social justice, and culture.

Impact
There was a discussion on the power of real, that was initiated by Carol Valenta. I see this as one of our strategies for engaging others. This power of real, includes interaction, connection to spaces and places, visiting communities and developing that relationship. When we went on the Renegade STL tour, that was the power of real. We rode on a bus like students on a field trip to the zoo or museum, but this trip was not contained in a building like a museum or gates like a zoo, rather it was a narrative of the cultural landscape of St. Louis. We were able to visit the cultural of St. Louis through visiting different communities. These communities included evidence of red-lining, the underground railroad, conversations of inequity, development, social-economics. There was the power of real when an area of the tour was what used to be the neighborhood of one of our classmates. When you hear a tour guide share a story or some historic facts it is helpful and insightful. When multiple classmates shared their stories of St. Louis, Ferguson, stories of riots, access to education, juvenile systems that show evidence of institutional racism, that is impact which to me is the true power of real. Carol also spoke about heritage as a continuum, how do we make sure that everyone’s story is accessible. These are approaches that need to be considered as we are bridging the gaps to our approach to societal challenges.

This week was just the beginning of our program. When we went to get our school ids and walked into the university store where we were buying shirts and laughing about our id photos, that was when I realized we are students. We are heritage leaders. We are moving forward with inspire, empower, and impact. As we all return to our spaces, my flight lands in San Francisco, I realize, yes that is why I am here –I am going to inspire, empower, and impact, but I am not alone. We are in this together and just to remind myself I created a hashtag, #WeGotThis.

I just wanted to add an addendum with two items, as some additional thoughts rose up on Monday:

A. I can’t believe this epiphany just now came to me, since the topic of population dynamics has been on my mind for decades. Climate change communication found it’s courage in the last decade, but population growth still remains an almost forbidden topic on the interpreter’s menu. In my thoughts today, I couldn’t help feeling that it all really boils down to addressing how many people can sustainably live on the planet. Population dynamics/growth IS a social justice, sustainability, and collaborative issue. At this point, I wonder whether it isn’t an invisible end-goal for our work in this decade — sort of how we left leadership as a pervasive/underlying concept in our research agenda. The same systems need to change in the same direction…

B. I was inspired by the MLK celebration today to think about other groups at UMSL who are working on social justice issues. Over the course of the week, I began to feel connections to the St. Louis/UMSL community, and I wonder whether there is some way that we could invite a dialogue with those groups and/or work on some small project together — perhaps at next year’s winter intercession? I think it would help to sustain our Heritage Leadership program if we did something integrative on the local level.

Educ 7610 Final Reflection:
– A Research Agenda for Heritage Leadership in the 21st Century
Tom Moffatt

1. Will the proposed research agenda support heritage leadership for sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture? Why or why not?
This week has been quite a ride! If you had asked me late in the day on Wednesday how we were ever going to distill down all the various points of interest present in the room into a relatively clear agenda for a scope of research that we could all agree to start picking away at, I would have told you that you were nuts. I must admit that I’ve had some concerns about how the wide-ranging interests, careers, and goals of this group were going to coalesce around an agenda. However, I was very happy to see the strands of collaboration, leadership, controversy, and relevancy emerge as touchstones to build our work around. I also think that, as we continue to drill down into these areas we’re going to continue to see them open into far more research opportunities than this first cohort can possibly tackle in our work over the next three years. Early in the process, it was stated that a goal of the effort of trying to create a pool of research possibilities was intended to set the groundwork for future research. I’m feeling like we’ve done some of the initial work in that respect. However, I think that the work is far from over. While we’ve done some foundational work in this area we certainly haven’t finished the work. Long after we’ve all finished our own dissertation work, there is going to be plenty for future cohorts to do.
For myself, I think I have a lot of work ahead of me as I hone these areas of interest down into a researchable question that will fit with my personal and professional passions and that will serve to be of benefit to the profession of heritage interpretation. In that respect, I feel like I’m wrapping up this week with a better sense of where my own interests fit within the framework of the research agenda that we’ve created but I need to take my broad ranging, personal interests and start focusing more deeply.2. How relevant is the proposed research agenda (a) to your work, (b) to your strategies for engaging others, and (c) to your approach to societal challenges?

The proposed agenda is an extremely good fit for my current work. The leadership of the agency I work for is currently struggling with issues related to diversity and inclusion, and with a history of actively avoiding anything remotely connected to controversy. Frankly, to remain relevant in the increasingly diverse society we live in, it will be critical for my agency to address and adapt to meet these challenges.
As a profession, I believe interpretation has suffered from generations of individuals who’ve not been fully prepared to meet and engage in the societal challenges we’re discussing. The lack of formal and effective preparation of the leadership of the interpretive field has routinely shown itself as front-line interpreters, promoted without this critical training, fall back to focusing on the areas where they are most comfortable; namely, the preparation and presentation of the same type of programs that they presented when they taught. These poorly prepared individuals can’t be blamed for falling back on their personal zones of comfort. However, if interpretation is to remain relevant as a profession, our future leaders need to be skilled at facing the challenges of conversing on controversial topics and reaching out across difference to address and effect change. So, is this area of study relevant? I would say that it is not only relevant, it is critical.3. With respect to the proposed research agenda, which topics or questions energize you? Which topics or questions would be most likely to elicit a high level of commitment from you? Why?

I doubt you’ll find it surprising that I continue to be most drawn to issues related to leadership development/leadership challenges in regards to the field of Heritage Interpretation. One area of questioning we developed in a breakout group holds great interest for me:
1) What are the barriers which exist to implementing relevancy, controversy, and collaboration based programming?
a) Barrier: lack of leadership skill development
b) How are traditional paths to leadership in interpretive organizations creating barriers?
c) How are the prominent paradigms of organizations creating unforeseen barriers to underrepresented audiences?
i) What are the unconscious biases inherent in the prominent paradigms present in organizations?
d) How much do mission statements interfere with the opportunity to develop controversial programming?
e) How does an agency create its own barriers?
f) What are the barriers to personal development tools/resources? (forced helplessness)
g) Do the accepted norms of professional organizations stand in the way of development of skills related to controversy and relevancy efforts?
h) How do we continue to challenge established norms and make the norm be the continual challenge of norms?

I understand that this is still a long way away from being a narrowed research question but this is an area that has held my attention for years, it’s a topic I’m passionate about, and I believe the results of research in this area can be directly applied to informing and improving the development of future leaders in the interpretive profession, improvements in the ways that interpretive organizations embrace challenging or controversial topics of conversation, and improvements in how interpretive organizations diversify audiences and workforce makeup.

As I reflect on Winter Intercession 2017 there are thoughts that resonate as to who I am as an individual, what it means to grow together as a Heritage Leaders, and what we all will discover as we make our journey.

This past week my personal experience was about relevant connections. It was about putting a real “person” to that virtual image (online class). It was about building new relationships. It was the inner beauty that many shared knowingly or unknowingly. It was about taking careful choice of words as to not harm new relationships. It was about truly “knowing your neighbor” and protecting them. It was about empathy. This past week reinforced my personal interpretation of what it means to be an individual seeking a greater level of understanding of who we all are in our own natural right and as it relates to our roles as Heritage Leaders.

Dr. Coble this past fall spoke to “Tension of the Heart” as a concept to re-channeling our frustrated energy for the greater good. Pauole Freire, author of the world-famous, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, would say that it is the rightful vocation of man to be fully human. In his context I might add that this relates to our empathy of the disenfranchised and our hurt to help. As a Heritage Leader I interpret this as a means to the relevancy of research, partnership, and beyond for the greater good of society. Albert Einstein once quoted, “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” Just as much as we are part of the essence of his quote so are all the rights of individuals who have had their vocation of humanity denied and their voices silenced. Children whose minds thirsts for exploration and discovery are denied the opportunity to learn and have safe environments, communities that are denied resources and implode from decay, and marginalized populations experiencing the disenfranchising rifts of willful blindness and unconscious bias. These narrations were repetitive as underlying themes from the many testimonies I heard this past week.

“Tension of the Heart” swelled as I listened to our guest’s many narrations. I perceived their struggles as the result of outright malice design of policy to offensive tacit behavior. As we drove through the “bombed” out north St. Louis cities, as we were educated to the affects of “red-line” redistricting, as we heard the “un-narrated” stories of St. Louis’s past atrocities, and as we saw the decay from years of failure to reinvest in the people I started to question my role as a Heritage Leader. A classmate noted so eloquently and with passion, “It has to be relevant”.

I noted this past week to a classmate that sometimes I envy those who display a nature talent of quickly identifying what to research. As a person of “jack of all trades and master of none” guy I feel lost at times and have challenges identifying my passion. This past week I have overcome my ambiguity. This is good!

Yesterday in the 9th hour of class Dr. Phyllis Balcerzak opened up a door to discovery of where my strength/passion may lie. She posed a thought for consideration. She helped me understand that sharing the “un-narrated” stories of marginalized population could be a starting point for research. She challenged me to dig deeper for more questions. This is good! As I noted earlier in the week cultural clarification is a profound awaking in my journey. We need to peel back the layers of years of miss-education reviewing the relevancy of our panelist’s narrations and their obstacles, the narrations of the many barriers marginalized populations encounter seeking a greater rightful vocation, and our own narrations as to why we seek solutions to social justice issues. These are all very relevant to all of us. Relevancy is the center-point of my map concept. Relevancy determines our level of commitment. Relevancy is important to managing limited resources. Relevancy is the reputation we establish as we conduct our research and share our discoveries. Relevancy can be very subjective at times and this encompasses the true challenge that we all will encounter in our efforts as Heritage Leaders. This question that I ask myself on so many different levels is, “Am I making a difference?” Could civil rights of all disenfranchised parties of 2017 be at a more equitable level of human vocation had the power brokers shared a greater level of empathy? Whose American Dream is it anyway? Perhaps this is something I need to measure 

1. Will the proposed research agenda support heritage leadership for sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture? Why/why not?

Initially, I was bewildered to discover that most of the distinguished guest and panel members that were invited to the Heritage Leadership Forum were interested in discussing informal education in parks and museum settings. However I managed to make a connection with group members when they started to discuss crossing boundaries, miss education, and public policy. I enjoyed networking, meeting new colleagues that shared similar interest on relevant social justice issues, and introducing myself to the guest speakers and classmates during our two day adventure. The guest speakers consisted of a variety of distinguished guest and scholars from across the world. During our week long conference the primary agenda involved collaborating together by brainstorming and exploring potential research topics or questions that relate to the heritage leadership field of study. The main focus of discussion seemed to center around four key factors of leadership resilience, relevance, controversy, and collaboration. After reflecting on many of the comments and feedback that were given during our panel and individual discussions, I had to do some soul searching to identify my purpose and mission as a member of the Heritage Leadership Program. Why? Since the group topic of conversation and reoccurring themes seem to address informal education, interpretation of other cultures, and parks, I decided to pick an area of interest that supports the theme of sustainable social justice, sustainability, and participatory culture. My research question and interest examines laws and policies that create disparities in every domain of life for oppressed minorities. I also thought it was important to highlight inequalities that perpetuate, and sustain racial inequalities in urban communities over a long period of time. Other personal area of interest in terms of resilience encompasses miss education and culture clarification of minorities and their ability to persevere through tumultuous times. Relevance distinguishes between distorted facts and myths about reality concerning suppressed historical information on different cultures. The controversy seems to enter into the equation whenever reparations are considered for past wrongdoings by dominant culture. Collaboration simply implies crossing boundaries and developing tool kit to interpret other races and cultures.

(a)The proposed research topics that I suggested are very vital to my work it terms of mass incarceration, school to pipeline zero tolerance policies, and advocating for special needs students. I am adamant about reform when it comes to laws and policies that have an adverse impact on minorities, special needs students, and juvenile offenders. My rationale for self interest is justified from working at two different juvenile detention centers, one in Illinois and the other in Missouri. The detention center in Illinois has a 95.5% recidivism rate and it is sponsored by an underfunded school district with the lowest test scores in the state. My second job is located in Missouri and it disturbs me a great deal when I am able to witness firsthand how the double standard juvenile justice system works against minority juvenile offenders and favors non black and affluent offenders. Through my Heritage Leadership lens, I see two distinctive institutions located in two different states that are in dire need of reform despite undergoing recent internal investigations by the United States Department of Justice.(b) My strategies for engaging others is an intricate part of my role as an advocate for special needs students and juvenile offenders. Working as Program Manger inside a secure juvenile detention center affords me the opportunity to classified information and allows me to witness disparities that occur on a daily basis. I made several valid attempts to reach out to local politicians and law enforcement in the area to formulate a plan of action to provide adequate community based support centers for urban youth. I was also excited about meeting with a representative from the Illinois State Board of Education to discuss a charter school start-up opportunity that never materialized because of a lack of funding, support, and political opposition. My primary objective was to empower parents to champion the cause of supporting another charter school in a district that has a reputation of decades of poor fiscal mismanagement, board members putting the needs of the students over their own self interest, and where teaching and learning have never been a priority.

3. With respect to the proposed research agenda, which topics or questions energize you? Which topics or questions would be most likely to elicit a high level of commitment from you? Why? The topics that energize me deal with exploring viable solutions to historical wrongs caused by dominant culture against oppressed minorities. Other topics of interest address inequalities and disparities that minorities have endured in the past and present. Relevant issues that make the most of space and time, crossing boundaries, miss education, and examining leadership policies and laws that sustain structural and institutional racism over extended period of time. However the primary topic that elicits a high level of commitment for me seems to highlight social, political, and economic issues that have a negative impact on minorities. It would be a disservice to the African American community if I did not utilize my research and Heritage Leadership lens to develop concrete solutions to historical problems. After the recent presidential election of Donald Trump there is a renewed sense of urgency for in the urban community to formulate new initiatives and strategies to achieve social and economic empowerment during the 21st century.

As I began Wintercession, I had lots of anxiety about what to expect. I wondered if the feeling of not belonging would increase or decrease. As the week started, and I was finally able to see the faces behind the screen, my anxiety did in fact decrease. Unfortunately, due to teaching full time, I was not able to be present at the daytime discussions but am grateful for those who shared information. Here are my reflections:

1. Will the proposed research agenda support heritage leadership for sustainability, social justice, and participatory culture? Why or why not?

I believe that the proposed agenda will in fact support our three main themes. It will be important for us to remember our focus and mission. The concept of empowering to engage really stands out to me. My hope is that this is an ongoing conversation as we delve deeper into concepts and ideas.

2. How relevant is the proposed research agenda (a) to your work, (b) to your strategies for engaging others, and (c) to your approach to societal challenges?
As a teacher and counselor, the proposed research agenda is very relevant. I am constantly helping others to understand themselves and the environment around them. At my current school, a challenge we face is the lack of diversity among the staff and how the behaviors of the scholars are impacted by that. We are also in the process of implementing restorative justice as a response to scholar decisions. Even as I sat through the MLK celebration, I realized even more how so many do want to see better (whatever that looks like for our society). I also wondered how many were willing to cultivate change on a daily basis and I left having that personal challenge for myself.

3. With respect to the proposed research agenda, which topics or questions energize you? Which topics or questions would be most likely to elicit a high level of commitment from you? Why?
– Treasuring Differences
– What are the barriers to engaging in controversial conversations? As a person who does not like conflict, I will often avoid tough conversations, although I have a voice that needs and deserves to be heard.
– How do we create a culture of inquiry? Let’s be lifelong learners
– Facilitate relationships
– How do we measure relevancy?

What a night, missing my collaborative cohort in persons. Thanks to my group members I am refining my research. When we spend so much time researching things on our own, we are missing out on the personal aspects in a group classroom, cohort team. I can’t believe that most of you stayed up past our class time to listen to each other. What dedication to helping out! I benefited from the various viewpoints regarding my research proposal – new directions. I checked out green space as an alternative to violence and found tons! Well, for a start-8 papers. Who would have thought about that and started a research path, I’m on it! Next, teacher burn out research due to stress, violence, etc..? Found a new direction to think about (not just personally and retirement, lol) Long story, short…thank all of you for listening and helping to make my research Literature map (snipping???) and Purpose of research that much more meaningful to me, our cohort and to my community! I can heartfully say that each of you have contributed to my learning journey, if it was just by dinners in ice storms, research late nights in hotel conference room, post its all over the walls, seeing some of you living life in your vacation like homes, far away from St Louis, -These Wednesday nights bring a bit of stability into my rocky world! Peace- Kim